Happy New Year!

It has been about a month or so since I last updated. What can I say? I am too busy living life to chronicle it. I should do better, though, because it is nice to have a history that I can share with my Doodlebug.

Jocelyn has her first ear infection. I feel so bad for her! She got sick towards the end of Christmas and had a bit of a cold for a few days. That was no fun. Then when our flight got canceled, I was thrilled because it meant that maybe she would be healthy for her flight back here. She mostly was, but she still developed an ear infection. I was going to go into the office on Friday, and take her with me. But one look at her in the morning told me that the only place my Bugaboo should go is the doctor's office. So now she is on her first course of antibiotics. It's no fun. I have her on Tylenol for the pain. If she was just a week older I could give her Ibuprofen.

Jocelyn's first Christmas was good, though. We did Christmas Eve with my family, and Christmas Day with Hubby-poo's family. We have some video footage of Jocelyn 'opening' presents. Okay, she got as far as ripping off pieces of the wrapping paper and shoving them in her mouth. But I was impressed that she figured that much out. She got to meet her cousins Zach, Stephanie and Tori (second cousins, specifically), and then a whole host of folks wanted to hold her at my mom's friend's house (Christmas Eve tradition). We skipped the standard evening at K&J's in favor of getting on the road and into bed early-ish. Jocelyn wore her reindeer butt 'Baby's First Christmas' jammies and we all got into bed.

We were up early Christmas morning and opened gifts for some 3 hours. Jocelyn was a champ for the first hour and a half, and then napped through the end of it. Poor little bugger. But we snapped some pictures. Then it was a rousing game of pass the baby into the evening while I cooked. Jocelyn got to wear her fancy Christmas dress, and looked beautiful. But that was when she started to feel sick and therefore really sleepy.

Some other milestones - Jocelyn is sitting up now! Okay, so you have to sit her on her butt, but she stays there! She also has lots and lots of 'words'. Did I tell you about the time she totally said, "Hi Dada"? Because she did! And yesterday there was a very clear "Mama". Okay, at this point they are just sounds, and they are not even being attributed to people yet, but it's a start. She is also super grabby, and is not shy about reaching for exactly what she wants. Unfortunately, it's usually a remote control or laptop computer or iPhone or something else expensive and not for babies.

She is also rolling around like a little monkey. She has been rolling back to front for a while now, but she has started to roll front to back, too! She has only done it twice, but she can do it. She has also found her feet. She has been grabbing for them for about 4 weeks now, but now she just reaches down and grabs them like it's nothing. They have not made it to her mouth yet except with the help of the bouncy-seat toy bar. But she's working on it.

She's also really into peak-a-boo. She laughs SO HARD when you bounce back into the picture. It's best when you hide behind a doorway (or Christmas tree) and she can't see you at all. But she laughs at a bunch or things. Anything my mother in law does is funny. She just has to look at her the right way, and Jocelyn cracks up. She's also a little dare devil - tossing her up in the air gives her the giggles (or at least makes her smile). Anticipation games are really fun for her, too. If you come at her slowly and she can watch you get closer, ending with some tickles, that's also really funny. And sometimes repeating the consonant 'puh' in a really animated way is enough to get her cracking up.

In addition to the consonant sounds and giggles, there are lots of screeches and grunts. It's another way she expresses delight and amusement. And she's getting really, really good about playing on her own. You could leave her on an activity mat (which we don't have, but borrowed one from Amanda and now know we need to own one) for 15-20 minutes just sort of playing. She grabs at the toys, talking to them and putting them in her mouth and just has a ball with it. It's also a good place for her to roll around. It was the one item I wasn't going to buy, because a basic one came with the Exersaucer (it can be used on the floor but also snaps into the Exersaucer), but it turns out that's a mistake. She loves it. And if we buy one and it only gets her one month of amusement, that's fine. That's not the only place she'll play, though. We sat her in her bouncy for about 30 minutes with a 'new' toy (an old favorite she hadn't played with for 2 weeks) and she just played while Mike did some work and I finally painted her room letters.

But a certain sick baby is waking up from her nap. So I better wrap up this VERY long blog post. I also know I keep on promising you all pictures. Obviously, I have no intention of actually honoring that promise. I am about 3 months behind on my picture-organizing, and about a month behind on my picture-printing (and uploading from the camera). Sue me :-P